Optical fibers carrying light signals are currently one of the basic telecommunication conduits. Optical fibers are relatively delicate and must be handled with care to avoid harsh twisting or bending which may attenuate their light transmission properties or even cause breakages.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,229,042 to Thebault et al., titled: “Packaging Reel with an Optical Fiber Unwinding Device”, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes an optical fiber packaging device in which an optical fiber cable is stored in two compartments, from which opposite ends of the optical fiber cable can be pulled out. When an inner spool of the device is rotated, a cable section from a first compartment is unwound, while the cable section from the second compartment is wound back in to the device.
In mechanical optical switches, excess optical fiber tails are provided to allow connecting the ends of the optical fibers at different locations within the switch. Therefore, solutions for handling such excess fiber tails are needed for states of the switch in which the tails are not required. Such solutions need to allow repeated movements between different states.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,378 to Saito et al., titled: “Optical Fiber Switch Including Partitions for Restricting Surplus Fibers”, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a switch with partitions that prevent the excess fiber tails from moving outside of a confined area. The use of partitions, however, limits the movements of the fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,485 to Saito et al., titled: “Optical Fiber Switching Device Having an Optical Fiber Length Adjustment Unit and Method for Using the same”, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes another system for handling excess fiber, based on a pair of reels urged by a spring. The excess fiber is stored in an unorganized manner within a closed unit. Such unorganized storage, is practical only for relatively short fiber extents, as for longer lengths the fiber may bend in a damaging manner.